1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems for controlling the delivery of recorded music where the music may be customized and individual instruments may be isolated or selected by the user.
2. Related Art
A common methodology of learning to play a particular musical instrument or to emulate its performance in a recorded piece of music is to play along with the recorded piece of music attempting to replicate the performance of the particular instrument as closely as possible. To facilitate this process, it is often desirable to single out the particular instrument for a user to follow. Especially in the early stages of learning a new piece of music, it is desirable for the user to hear both the instrument that is being emulated and their own instrument along with the remaining instruments of the recording. As the user becomes more proficient at the particular piece of music, hearing the instrument in the music (that is being emulated by his own performance of his own instrument) may then become a distraction or hindrance to the learning process. At this stage it may be preferable to hear only the user""s own instrument and the accompanying instruments of the recording, while excluding the instrument in the music that the user is trying to emulate or to learn.
Various users may desire to learn different instruments played in a particular piece of music, and hence, there is a need for a custom mixed version of the music with each instrument being selectively removed or included at the user""s choice. Another desirable feature users may want during the learning process is for the tempo of the recorded music to be changed to a slower rate without changing the pitch of the music. This feature may be especially desirable when the user is unfamiliar with the flow of the music. As the user becomes more proficient, it may then be desirable to increase the tempo of the recorded music, Similarly, changing the pitch of the music without changing the tempo is another desirable manipulation, thereby allowing the music to be transposed into another key, for example. Changing the pitch further allows the music to be tuned to the instrument being played rather than requiring a re-tuning of the instrument to match the pitch of the recorded music.
Another aspect of learning to play a particular piece of music or instrument is the desirability for the user""s own instrument to match the textural effect or sonic characteristics of the instrument in the recording, as generated during the recording process. Matching textural effects is particularly difficult with instruments such as the electric guitar or bass wherein extensive processing of the musical signal is common. It may thus be desirable for the user to have, for each instrument within the music if applicable, predefined musical special effect setup information that can be load into a musical effect processing device to emulate the signal processing that is done to match the textural effect or sonic characteristics of the initial music recording.
In addition, it may also be desirable for the user to have and select a copy or graphic representation of the written musical score pertaining to a desired instrument for the piece of music. In short, a need exists for improved systems capable of delivering recorded music and providing users with increased control functionality.
This invention provides a system capable of delivering a customized copy of a recorded music piece with a plurality of control features. Users may select form a variety of recordings of musical pieces. Through a selection menu, the user may isolate one or more tracks for inclusion in a customized version of the selected recorded music piece. The user may also adjust the pitch or tempo of the selected track(s) or the entire musical piece.
The musical tracks may be selected for inclusion or exclusion from the desired musical piece. Omitted tracks may be supplemented by integration of music generated by a live performance of sound from instruments not found on the omitted track(s) For example, if a user wants to play a guitar, the guitar track can be omitted from a desired song and the user""s guitar sounds integrated into a derivative work of the original song. Likewise, if a user desires to substitute the sounds of an electric piano for the guitar sounds, the guitar rack of a recorded song may be omitted and the sounds from the electric piano may be integrated to the derivative work of the original song.
In addition, the user may also select a predefined special effect thus modifying particular characteristics of a song. In this example, the user may load into the signal processing system information to emulate and match the sonic characteristics desired by the user. This integrated sound characteristic thus modifies the original recorded music piece according to the characteristic selected, e.g. increased or decreased pitch, etc. For example, if a user desired to hear a particular musical song at a higher pitch, the song would be generated and modified at the higher pitch. Likewise, if a user wanted to hear a particular song as through it were recorded in a canyon, the desired special effort would be selected by the user, and the generated song would be played as modified by the echoes of a canyon. The music score for the recorded music piece pertaining to any individual instrument contained in the recorded music piece may be displayed to the user in any user defined manner. A typically methodology to convey this information is in a computer generated graphic.
Recorded musical pieces may be recalled by a user via a communication link to a storage area accessible by a communication network such as a private network or a public network such as the Internet. The customizable copy of a recorded music piece is delivered from a repository to a local computer or a music processing system by Known communication interfaces. In another example, a repository of the recorded music pieces is stored on a data medium such as a CD-ROM from which the user can access any one of them using an access device such as a personal computer. The user can select individual instruments to be included in a customized copy of a selected recorded music piece. The user can also adjust the pitch variation and the tempo. The customized copy of the recorded music piece may be delivered to a playing device, and may also be integrated with sounds created by playing a user selected musical instrument through a musical effect signal processing device.